Anne Bradstreet’s To My Dear and Loving Husband is a love poem that was published in 1678. Bradstreet explores the themes of time, faith, value, and identity through the speaker’s love for her husband. Through this poem, Bradstreet expresses Puritan values towards love and discusses the potential immortality of love.
To My Dear and Loving Husband shares similarities to a sonnet, but alters with the rhyme scheme and use of twelve lines in comparison to the usual fourteen lines. Bradstreet crafts her poem in iambic pentameter and composes her lines into rhyming couplets. Through her use of iambic pentameter, Bradstreet creates an impression of a heartbeat, which produces a sense of unity that this couple shares with one another. The rhyming …show more content…
“If ever two were one, then surely we. / If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;” (l. 1-2). The speaker establishes the unity and love she feels for her husband in these first two lines as a form of spiritual love that transcends time. While the speaker implies that her husband, the addressee, reciprocates her feelings, it is notable that only the speaker loses her individual identity in this poem. The addressee is referred to as “thee,” implying that his individual identity is not altered even though they are bonded as one, which is certainly a reflection of Puritan …show more content…
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold / Or all the riches that the East doth hold” (l. 5-6). It is notable that when the speaker shifts back to addressing her husband, she continues to compare their love but shifts the focus of the comparison onto valuable earthly possessions (i.e. riches and gold). The emphasis on earthly goods denotes the contrast between societal values versus spiritual faith. The expression “whole mines” indicates a sense of vastness that is finite (and can be quantified) on earth, which alters slightly in the next line, “my love is such that rivers cannot quench,” which cannot be quantified but remains as a finite source (l. 7). The speaker’s love for her husband has grown beyond the superficial chemistry of their union into a visceral spiritual bond that is
To My Dear and Loving Husband shares similarities to a sonnet, but alters with the rhyme scheme and use of twelve lines in comparison to the usual fourteen lines. Bradstreet crafts her poem in iambic pentameter and composes her lines into rhyming couplets. Through her use of iambic pentameter, Bradstreet creates an impression of a heartbeat, which produces a sense of unity that this couple shares with one another. The rhyming …show more content…
“If ever two were one, then surely we. / If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;” (l. 1-2). The speaker establishes the unity and love she feels for her husband in these first two lines as a form of spiritual love that transcends time. While the speaker implies that her husband, the addressee, reciprocates her feelings, it is notable that only the speaker loses her individual identity in this poem. The addressee is referred to as “thee,” implying that his individual identity is not altered even though they are bonded as one, which is certainly a reflection of Puritan …show more content…
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold / Or all the riches that the East doth hold” (l. 5-6). It is notable that when the speaker shifts back to addressing her husband, she continues to compare their love but shifts the focus of the comparison onto valuable earthly possessions (i.e. riches and gold). The emphasis on earthly goods denotes the contrast between societal values versus spiritual faith. The expression “whole mines” indicates a sense of vastness that is finite (and can be quantified) on earth, which alters slightly in the next line, “my love is such that rivers cannot quench,” which cannot be quantified but remains as a finite source (l. 7). The speaker’s love for her husband has grown beyond the superficial chemistry of their union into a visceral spiritual bond that is